Microsoft has been pretty stingy about revealing sales numbers for its Surface RT and Surface Pro tablets, but the Windows maker finally threw a number out there -- just one.

From the launch of the Surface RT tablet (October 26, 2012) and the launch of the Surface Pro tablet (February 9, 2013) until the end of the company's fiscal year on June 30, Microsoft said Surface tablet sales came out to a total of $853 million USD.

Microsoft failed to mention which portion of those sales were Surface RT sales and which were Surface Pros.

In an 8-month period, Microsoft sold 1.7 million Surface tablets -- which doesn't look too good sitting next to Apple's numbers. Last November, Apple sold 3 million iPads in just three days around the holiday shopping period.

In addition, Apple sold 14.6 million iPads in the last quarter alone, and a total of 57 million iPads since the launch of the Surface RT in October.

Last month, Microsoft was basically giving Surface RTs away. It announced that it was giving away 10,000 Surface RT tablets to teachers at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). The idea was to spread RT adoption in schools by supplying teachers with the devices and even training them how to use it.

Days later, Microsoft introduced the "Microsoft Surface for education limited time offer," which will give discounted Surface RTs to schools and colleges interested in adopting the tablets.

The offer, which will reportedly run until August 31, 2013, will sell Surface RTs (without keyboards) to schools for only $199. If the schools want a touch keyboard with their Surface RT, the total price is $249. With a type keyboard, the cost is $289.

For the fiscal year ended June 30, analysts had hoped for earnings of around 75 cents per share ($6.33 billion USD) on revenue of $20.73 billion USD (not including the Surface write-down). Instead they got earnings of around 66 cents per share ($5.56 billion USD) once the Surface write-down was removed.

I understand the thought process behind it, but it doesn't excuse the fact that it really doesn't work on paper.

People want to use DESKTOP APPLICATIONS on their tablet SEAMLESSLY. They don't want to wait for another app ecosystem to launch from scratch. IMO, Metro should have been an application launcher install for Windows 7 a year beforehand, giving a lot of time for people to play with it, try it out, weigh in their opinions and find a nice way to INTEGRATE it with current desktop applications or at least make them equal in functionality.

Look at Skype for Desktop and Skype Metro. Can't share screen, no clear definitive way to tweak settings, chat or resize the video without forcing to bring another app to take in a 1/3 of the screen. It's all just a terrible mess of an idea.

I am glad that Windows 8.1 is fixing a lot of these issues and giving people the CHOICE to just avoid the Metro interface entirely. I'm just surprised its taking a year to do so.

quote: People want to use DESKTOP APPLICATIONS on their tablet SEAMLESSLY.

And that right there is why I wonder if Microsoft would have been better trying to evolve the desktop to be more tablet friendly, instead of building a totally new ui. Kind of like how Office 2013/RT has a touch mode, have a touch mode for desktop that can be enabled or disabled depending on the current input method desired.

I like the idea of a convertible device. I think the Surface RT hardware is brilliant. The restrictions on the RT OS need to be re-thought in my opinion. I wouldn't have bought my RT if it were for the jailbreak developed by the fine folks at XDA Developers. Touch is nice for somethings, but I want to use desktop apps when in laptop mode.

For this idea I have been suggesting that since the biggest problem to use traditional desktop applications in a touch environment is that the finger is simply to fat and click on anything precisely, the UI should provide a virtual touchpad on screen that allows the user to move the mouse pointer just like using a physical touchpad, and virtual buttons to click on for mouse click. Why is it so hard to make a usable interface using touch screen for legacy mode?

The trouble I have (or had, as I've stopped using them) with Metro Apps is that they were generally worse than using the real App, or using the internet explorer. maybe it's not so bad on a phone-sized screen, but trying to use Metro Apps on a 17" laptop (docked to a 24" Monitor) was beyond cumbersome. It's the ultimate in fragmentation - Apps being used on screen sizes from 4" up to huge LCD monitors. It probably works OK on the surface, but I already have my iPad and laptop, so no need to get a surface.

"This is about the Internet. Everything on the Internet is encrypted. This is not a BlackBerry-only issue. If they can't deal with the Internet, they should shut it off." -- RIM co-CEO Michael Lazaridis